Parole considered for Charles Manson follower Bruce Davis

Sacramento, California – Bruce Davis, an associate of 1960s mass murderer Charles Manson, was granted parole on Thursday for the fourth time, although previous such decisions have all been reversed.The decision by a Board of Parole Hearings commissioner and deputy commissioner, however, is not final and actually means that Davis is only eligible for release.SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — After 43 years in prison and 30 parole hearings, parole officials on Thursday again decided it is safe to free Charles Manson follower Bruce Davis. Former Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, a Republican, reversed Davis’ first grant of parole in 2010, and the state’s current governor, Jerry Brown, a Democrat, reversed the next two.

First, it gets reviewed by Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation staff and then can move to the governor, who can reverse, modify, uphold or ignore the board’s parole recommendation. Davis was convicted in the murders of music teacher Gary Hinman, who was stabbed to death in July 1969, and stuntman Donald “Shorty” Shea, who was killed the following month.

That year, Manson’s “family” of followers, most of them young women, burst into public consciousness with a series of grisly murders committed at his behest in what prosecutors said was an attempt to spark a race war. In this Dec. 22, 1970, file photo, Bruce Davis (left) and Steve Grogan, two members fo the Charles Manson family, leave court after a hearing on the appointment of attorneys to represent them in Los Angeles. Four other people were also stabbed or shot to death at Tate’s home by the Manson followers, who scrawled the word “Pig” in blood on the front door before leaving. Davis’s attorney, Michael Beckman, said by telephone after the hearing: “I am pleased that the board again followed the law and did the right thing, and I am hopeful that the governor will do likewise.” Davis was not involved in the notorious killings of actor Sharon Tate and six others, but Los Angeles county Deputy District Attorney John Morris said the lesser-known killings were plenty to keep him behind bars. “The heinousness of the crimes held southern California in the grip of fear for months,” said Morris, who heads the district attorney’s parole division and drove to San Luis Obispo to oppose Davis’s parole. “The reason for the crimes was to incite the race war of Helter Skelter.” Manson interpreted the Beatles song to symbolise an Armageddon-like war between whites and blacks.

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